been looking at getting some portawalls...fake whitewalls. they apparently fit between the bead and the rim and i was wondering if anybody here had used them. i'm cheap and don't wanna fork out the dough for real www's and wanted to see if i should just wait until i can afford a set, or have these look decent for now. thanks guys.
No experience trying to run them with radial tires ... back when they cost a buck apiece, they worked OK if you mounted them on tires that had a rib just outside the portawall. Fill tire to 5 lbs, then go around the bead 3 - 4 times with a rubber hammer to seat them all the way down under the flange EVENLY ... as long as they were kept clean and you didn't hit curbs, they worked until you could buy some whitewalls. More than a few "magazine" cars had them on the inside - whitewalls on both sides of the tire. 302
i got a set on my car.after the tires gettin slashed i wouldnt own anything else.just use some tall tires and they work fine..make sure not to have any grease on the tires when you mount em cuz the back set of mine had it (the lubed up the rims to put em on) and they didnt seat and ripped off goin down the highway creepy
They work pretty good if you buy the Atlas brand and install them correctly. If they separate from the tires or start to flap you can use Shoe Goo to glue them on. You can't use Bleech white on them though but Castrol Super clean works well. Good place to find them is Coker Tire. Good luck. Rich
sounds good to me...even though they're around $40 a set on average, it's still cheaper than $200-300 a tire for the size www's i want.
They will last about 1500 miles with radials.. the flex of the radials breaks the portawall.. and then it p***es you or rips up your fenderskirt... Just my personal experience, someone else may have had better luck.. Brian
We used to carry portawalls but only have some older stock now. I really don't like them. They are a big pain to put on, stay on and they usually make folks unhappy. My aim is to make folks happy! I think Lucas sells them though. Best, Corky
Corky- I bought a set off ebay that were sold by Coker...16'S[ATLAS'S]. I INSTALLED EM ON THE REAR OF MY A ROADSTER AND THEY LOOK FINE AND HAVE STAYED PUT WELL. I BELIEVE IT IS INSTALLING THEM THAT IS CRITICAL. ALSO I DON'T BELIEVE THEY WERE EVER INTENDED TO BE USED ON A RADIAL TIRE.........
You are right...they were designed to be used on bias ply tires. We still have a few 16inch, maybe some 14, and little 8, 10 and 12 inch. I would unload them to someone cheap if they wanted them! You are also correct that the way they are mounted makes all the difference! c
Do you know of anyone in your area who cuts whitewalls? Couple of guys in my club who didnt have the coin to lay out on new whites bought cheaper thin whitewall tires and had them cut by this guy locally -- they look REALLY good -- even up close. Definatly another option if you are trying to save a few bucks
Back in the early sixties we called them Micky Mouse Whitewalls. It was NOT a flattering term. Weird. Everything that was considered lame back then is thought to be hip nowadays in the name of "Tradition". Rust, cloudy gl***, leakers, blown out mufflers. That fad seems to be dying and it can't come to soon for me. BTW, back then, before Roth got religion, RF stood for Rat ****ed and it wasn't a compliment either. Ain't life weird?
I ran 'em on radials and bias plies, tubed and tubeless, for thousands of miles before I had the money for the real thing.. never had a problem with 'em. Real old ones get stiff and will crack/chunk off at high speed though. As said before, it's all about how carefully you install 'em. But obviously, real whitewalls are superior.
there are a few guys around the country that can still grind whitewalls... the problem is that there is differing amounts of whitewall rubber used in the sidewall package of most narrow whitewall tires. You also run the risk of buffing thru, damaging the sidewall by nicking the ply material as well as buffing the whitewall package so thin that the whitewalls stain from the oils used in the manufacture of the tire. You very rarely can make the wider buff go all the way to the rim either. Best of luck to you! Corky Coker
I got 2K miles on them on my '60 Fury until one tore off (on radials). Looked nice until then. I won't be using them again. I did a test grind on a set of tires to make whitewalls out of raised white letter tires. I could see how it would look nice but the sidewalls at the very top seemed noticeably thinner by the time they were done, so I'm not sure if I trust those either. Especially on one of the heavy land barges I like to drive. But, in the interest of being cheap, this time I'm gonna try this stuff. http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/other/tirepaint.htm We'll see how this works. I too would love to buy a brand new set of WWW's and for some projects I can and will do that. But for my $500 '55 Dodge, I can't see doubling the cost of the car in tires just for the look. We'll see how this stuff holds up, supposed to be better than previous formulas and looks easy enough to do. If anyone here has ever used that stuff, please testify and let us know how it worked.
I ran some of the thicker, harder old port-a-walls with no problem. But some, like a set I got from J.C. Whittney, are thin. I ran down the hiway with those on and they stretched like crazy. Had to take them off and they weren't a week old. You also have to be vey careful around curbs. The whitewall paint I used turned yellow, but may not be the same brand you are thinking of using. All this was 15+ years ago so I can't say they haven't been improved on since. Good luck.
Had a set on a '40 Chevy. Took it to have the tires spun balanced (on the car) and one came off while spinning and caused a few skips of the old ticker until it smacked into a wall.
Hi Corky, I am looking for set of 14" portawalls here in UK, I havent had much luck so far. Will it be possible for you to post me some over here? What would be the price? including postage and package. Cheers
I've known a couple guys who ran them on their late model VW's. looked pretty decent but I was always cautious on their ability not to fly off at speed.
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